Diana L. Farmer is an American pediatric surgeon. She is the Pearl Stamps Stewart Professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

and surgeon-in-chief of UC Davis Children's Hospital. In 2010, Farmer was inducted as a fellow into the

Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The ...

, becoming the second woman surgeon from the United States to receive this honor.

Early life and education

Farmer grew up in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

, to a flight attendant mother and Navy fighter pilot father. Her grandfather was a surgeon in Nebraska who graduated from the now defunct National University of St. Louis. Upon completing her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in marine sciences and molecular biology from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, Farmer conducted research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. As a result, she was named a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

finalist. While driving to her interview, she was involved in a car accident and chose to pursue a career in medicine while recovering from her injuries. She earned her M.D. from the

University of Washington School of Medicine The University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) is a large public medical school in the northwest United States, located in Seattle and affiliated with the University of Washington. According to ''U.S. News & World Report''s 2022 Best Grad ...

in 1983, where she also completed her internship. She finished her

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

(UCSF) in 1993 where she was introduced to fetal surgery. After a surgical fellowship in Michigan, Farmer was awarded a Luce Scholarship to study medicine in Asia and moved to Singapore with her husband.

Career

In 1988, Farmer returned to UCSF and became the first female fetal surgeon. As the UCSF Children’s Hospital Surgeon-in-Chief, Farmer’s research interests include fetal therapy interventions for myelomeningocele and other birth defects. In January 2010, Farmer was inducted as a fellow into the

, becoming the second woman surgeon from the United States to receive this honor. The following year, she was also elected a Member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

. Upon joining the faculty of

, Farmer became the Pearl Stamps Stewart Professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief of UC Davis Children's Hospital. In February 2019, she was elected to the Board of Regents of the

American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913.American College of Surgeons Online "What is the American College of Surgeons?"/ref> See also *American College of Physicians The American College o ...

. While serving in these roles, Farmer continued her research into curing spina bifida. In 2019, Farmer and Aijun Wang identified exosomes and galectin 1 as key to protecting neurons and ultimately reducing the lower-limb paralysis associated with the birth defect. Due to her research, Farmer won a 2020 U21 Award for advancing global perspectives in her field. She was later awarded a grant to co-launch the world’s first human clinical trial using stem cells to treat spina bifida with Aijun Wang. The following year, Farmer became the third woman named president-elect of the

American Surgical Association The American Surgical Association is the oldest surgical organization in the United States. History It was founded in 1880. Their publication, ''Annals of Surgery'', was started in 1885. A collection of the association's papers are held at the Nat ...

Personal life

Farmer married her husband Charles Cauldwell in 1983.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, Diana L. Living people American surgeons Wellesley College alumni University of Washington School of Medicine alumni University of California, Davis faculty University of California, San Francisco faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Year of birth missing (living people)